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I did not get a chance to chase after celebrities this year at TIFF, but many photographers did. What most of them did not realize is that throughout the year there are many celebrities who visit Toronto for other purposes. Stars like Rob Low, Drew Berrymore, George Clooney, as well as directors like David Cronenberg and Henry Wrinkler, all made appearances. Toronto is a place to film for many actors and actresses, even with the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, telling film makers to stop making films north of the border. This is the real reason the Governator did not come to TIFF. Without Hollywood productions, Toronto is seen as a place to film high quality films. Toronto is very well known for the high quality production crews and support staff. Film production aside, Toro...

It was only last week that I watched the season finale of my favorite summer show “Big Brother”. I have another blog I will be writing about the ending and the Jury’s choice of Hayden over Lane as the winner of “Big Brother”. One summer show (that I did not watch this summer) that ended last week was “Americas Got Talent”. I only heard about that show from listening to the “Howard Stern Show” on Sirius Satellite Radio. The most interesting thing I heard about “Americas Got Talent” is that they promoted the fact the winner would take home a million dollars, but it was the research staff of the “Howard Stern Show” that publicly outed the show when they discovered that the winner would receive $25,000 for 40 years...

Today while I was in the kitchen of my office space Toronto, I found out that the women two offices away from me is pregnant. When I went to get my second cup of complimentary coffee, Taylor was getting herself a decaffeinated cup of herbal tea. I had to ask her if the news was true. She confirmed that indeed, her and her husband are expecting their first child in February. During my conversation with Taylor, I found out that she was going for her 20 week ultrasound next week and they would find out the sex of the child at that time. I had to know if she wanted to know the sex of the child from the ultrasound or did she want to wait until the birth of the child. It turned out that she was intending to find out the sex of the child from the ultrasound. Since she would know the sex, an off...

Best before dates Over the past 20 years or so, best before dates have appeared on many products that our parents would have never thought had an expiry date. Spam and other canned products were the things we were told to put away during the cold war. now they have Best Before dates. What changed? Products like hand soap and disposable towelettes now have best before dates. What is next to have a Best Before date, toilet paper and paper towels? These days, it seems that every product we consume, seems to have a best before date. Some say this is a safety issue and that all products should have that best before date listed on them. I am starting to believe that some products are listing Best Before dates to force consumers not to keep them, but to replace them on a regular basis. I have n...

As an actor or someone who stumbled into acting (that is another story), I have done my dues as an extra in crowd scenes, along with many appearances as a background performer with specific directions. I have also done some bit parts without lines and even a few bit parts with spoken lines. One day, I realized that I wanted to act and not just be in front of the camera, so I no longer wanted to do extra work. I enjoyed stepping into a role and making it my own. I did not care if anyone actually recognized me. I started to take acting more seriously and had to prioritize acting over just getting my face on camera just so I could brag to my friends. My agent saw this and so did some local casting directors. I started to get more auditions for minor roles that were pretty much SOC (Silent on ...

Where did those heat waves go? The weather of the last week and this Labour Day weekend has many almost wishing we had those heat waves back. It was only in the last week of August, just when we thought we could enjoy the last weeks of summer without melting, along came another heat wave. The City of Toronto issued an extreme heat alert due to temperatures rising over 30 degrees Celsius, with the humidex factor it was almost 40 degrees. Not only Toronto, but most of Ontario was baking under high temperatures again. The humidex advisory that was affecting Toronto also stretches from Windsor to Kingston and east to Ottawa and north to Muskoka. During the extreme heat a week ago, I decided to be kind on the environment and not contribute to the smog levels by taking transit instead of drivi...

Trekkies and superhero fans took over the Metro Convention Centre this weekend. I took my girlfriend down to FanExp on Sunday to meet up with some friends of mine who had some spare passes to the extravaganza. I parked my car at my downtown Toronto office space and took the short walk to the Metro Convention Centre. When we arrived at the convention centre, there were hundreds of fans who had been lined up for hours around a city block trying to get into the convention centre without a prepaid pass. I was not about to join that line up because my friends already had passes for us, were already inside and in the line up to meet William Shatner. Unlike my friends who are diehard super fans of sci-fi and comic books, my interest was only casual and long line ups were not my thing. Also from w...

Many of my friends know that I write this blog and those who know that I do know that I am a big supporter of my office space Toronto. They know that I am very happy about and love my Toronto office space, some have even looked into why I love my downtown Toronto office space. Yes, a few have even followed me and also rented Toronto office space from Telsec. This week one of my friends brought up the subject that Conrad Black may be returning to Canada shortly. My friend pointed out that Conrad Black will not be returning to his prestigious 10 Toronto street office when he gets back to Toronto. but he will need an office space in Toronto. My friend went on to ask if Conrad Black will be looking for office space Toronto at 1 Yonge Street. My only reply was “Who would not want a Toron...

The beginning to the end of summer is now upon us, the Canadian National Exhibition is now open. Every year on Warriors day at the CNE, most of my family meets up on the west side of the Food Building for an annual reunion of sorts. This year only 3 of my 5 sisters and their families were there, but it was great to see them. The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) or The Ex as it is affectionately called, is Canada’s largest annual community fair. Taking place over 18 days leading up to and including Labour Day, The Ex offers a wide variety of entertainment and events, including midway rides and games, a working farm, parades and sports, international food and shopping, Kids’ World, and a three-day air show. Over the course of its late summer run, the CNE attracts over a million people each...

Thursday night I was asked to attend an event that was being held by one of my clients and to take some photographs for their website. The event included a guest speaker Howard Brown, who is the President of Brown & Cohen Communications. Mr. Brown was to be talking about “The Art and Science of Networking”. I picked up some interesting networking concepts from the speaker at this event, including not to be afraid to randomly go up to people and introduce yourself. Another concept Mr. Brown reiterated was to make the introduction of yourself to people about them, meaning to ask questions about them rather than talking about yourself. After hearing the speaker, guests were treated to some hot hors d’oeuvres and encouraged to mingle. While all of the guests were in the same industry (one ...